The screaming seemed never ending. Ria's throat after a while getting sore and irritating while she clutched on tighter to her friend. She happily handed Julie the cross, who then repeated her earlier actions and held it out in front of them.
The three ghost boys jumped back at the frightening noise, hands outstretched in a 'calm down' motion.
"Oh my God! Please stop screaming!" The tallest of the three requested. His hands had flung up to cover his ears. The girls, still confused and dazed at the fact that they were now in the presence of three dead teenage boys, obliged without much thought.
Mouth opening and closing like a fish out of water, Ria started rambling. The last bit of wits she had in the moment pouring out. "G-ghosts, t-there are actual ghosts in your mom's studio, actual freaking ghosts in your mom's studio- okay this is just fantastic." She shut her mouth after letting her thoughts flood into the room. So this is what a mental breakdown feels like.
The girl let go of Julie and let her hands tangle through her hair, trying to grasp onto any sanity she had left.
"Who are you, and what are you doing in my mom's studio?" Julie asked as she mustered up her best defensive glare.
"Your mom's studio?" The boy with the over coat asked in confusion, his eyebrows clinching together. He took big strides towards the two but kept his distance, respecting that they did not want him to touch the cross. "This is our studio" he argued, clearly annoyed with the two strangers in his personal space. "Trust me-" backing up and sliding across the dusted piano, he admitted to the difference of the space, "the grand piano is new, and-and-and- my couch!"
Flinging himself gleefully onto the small black couch, the brunette ghost boy sighed happily at the familiarity. He let himself lay there for a second before sitting up and glancing behind him. Confusion once again making its way onto his face, he pointed at the guitar hanging on the wall. "But that is definitely not my six-string."
Finally taking the time to observe his surroundings he was astonished to see that this wasn't the studio they left. It was decorated differently, there was new furniture and lights, heck- there was even a bathroom.
Getting up from the seat, he walked up to the two girls, who immediately backed away. "Can you give me just one second?" He asked.
Julie and Ria, getting more frustrated about the lack of answers from the boys, stepped forward with the cross, making it so the boy had no choice but to back up.
Hands up in defense he spoke once more, "just- give me a second. Thank you." Before going back to his two dead friends.
The friends watched the strange males converse, their nerves not once calming down.
Arms getting tired, Julie handed Ria the cross, who steadily held it towards the boy in pink, the same boy that had earlier requested them to stop quiet down. He gently planted his feet in front of the two, not wanting them to mind numbingly scream again.
Hands in his pockets, he slightly leaned forward. "Why are you in our studio?" He questioned. Talking to them as though they couldn't speak the English language.
Julie urged her friend forward, resulting in Ria's arm- along with the cross- going through the boy entirely.
Feeling her eyes practically bulge out of her skull, Ria quickly retracted her arm. More questions toppling over the previous ones in her mind.
"Oh my gosh! How did you do that?" Julie asked, her fear level rising immensely.
"Okay well clearly you're not understanding-" he informed them and turned to his friends, "-clearly they don't get it."
The two boys who stood behind him shrugged in a 'clearly' motion.
"Okay, look. We're ghosts, all right?" The boy flat out stated, choosing to not sugar coat anything. "We're just three ghosts, and we're really happy to be home. So thank you for the flowers. They really brighten up the room." He explained with a smile.
Ria subconsciously nodded, mouth still vulnerable to catching flies.
"We're actually in a band called Sunset Curve." The boy with the brunette fringe added, hoping the two would recognize the name. His shoulders drooped at seeing the girls expressions stay the same.
"Tell your friends." The one in leather spoke with a dorky smile on his face.
Sunset Curve. The young Estrada's forehead wrinkled with deep thought. Like the CD. Blocking out the group's next few words, she silently ran over today's experiences in her head. These are the boys from Sunset Curve. A band my mother seemed to be a fan of. But why did she never mention them, when she talks to me about all the CDs in that room?
"This is freaking me out." With Julie's statement about how she felt, the friend hastily grabbed her phone and went to Google in hopes to find some useful information about the ghosts who stood in front of them.
Pointing at the unfamiliar device in her hand, the boy with the overcoat softly asked what it was. "What is that? What are you doing?"
"It's her phone." Ria informed, not wanting to interrupt Julie with her quest to find much needed information about Sunset Curve.
Taking a sharp intake of breath, Ria started fiddling with some strands of her hair. "Nope no-no-no this this-" she pointed a manicured finger towards the three ghosts in warning. "-is not real. It's not. Julie, clearly this has got to be some type of hallucination, we were both extremely stressed today." The freckle faced girl offered her 'reasonable' solution. "Maybe, maybe this is our bodies shutting down, telling us we should go eat, or take a nap." She suggested, breathing becoming more erratic due to the intense and confused looks coming from the boys.
Julie, looking up from the glowing screen of her phone, turned to her friend. She was even confused at this point, and started worrying for her Ria's sanity.
"Oh come on, don't give me that look Jules. It's gotta be our minds playing tricks- there's even a cute boy in leather, leather Jules! You know that's one of my all-time favorite fantasies-" realising her slip up, she pointed her chin to the ceiling, trying to hide her embarrassment, "-which you boys didn't need to know about." She muttered, cheeks beginning to match the blonde's pink sweatshirt.
Crossing his arms, the one in leather smiled charmingly at the blushing girl and winked, igniting a new fire onto her cheeks. "You think I'm cute?" He asked. To which the girl only looked down at Julie's screen in response.
"Who ya calling?"
Halting her tapping and looking up from her phone, Julie responded, "I'm googling Sunset Swerve"
"Sunset Curve." The boys corrected, pouting at the mistake made.
'Sorry' Ria mouthed to them.
Landing upon a useful article, the two friends' eyes widened when they looked at the information on the screen. "Woah. There is a Sunset Curve. You did die. But not last night."
At this new information, the boys leaned in closer, confusion flooding even more into their brains. Crap. They don't know. Ria pitifully concluded.
"Twenty-five years ago?"
Ria's fantasy boy huffed out a disbelieving breath. "What? No. No, no, no. Th-th-that's impossible." He stuttered out, not wanting to face the harsh reality. "After we floated out if the ambulance, all we did was go to that weird dark room where Alex cried."
Wincing at his exposure, the blonde- recently discovered to be Alex- immediately spoke up to defend himself. "Well. I don't think- I think we were all pretty upset."
For a split second, Ria relaxed her forehead muscles and felt the slightest urge to smile at the way Alex's voice raised a few octaves.
"But that was just for like an hour. We just showed up here." Luke stated, still not totally believing twenty-five years had passed by for them so quickly.
"Look. I'm just telling you what my phone says."
Looking at them with a newfound pity, Ria gently brought up the tough truth. And she no longer found the need to hold up the now slightly warm cross, so she let it hang by her side. "This article says you guys died in 1995, when you were seventeen years old."
"It's now 2020." Her friend blatantly stated.
"So this is the future?" The boy dressed in leather questioned.
Raising his hand in a 'halt' motion, Alex took a moment to process everything. "Wait. So- so, it has been twenty five years."
Ria nodded cautiously, not wanting to set off the boy into a frenzy. "It has." She confirmed.
Shaking his head with wide eyes, the boy then motioned to himself in a crazed way. "I have been crying for twenty-five years- how is that possible?" He exasperatedly questioned.
"Well you're a very emotional person." Leather boy noted, hoping his friend wouldn't start bawling his eyes out once more.
"I am not!" Alex denied, quivering lips and red eyes saying otherwise.
"It's alright. I probably would've had the same reaction." Ria offered. Also not wanting the boy to start crying.
He acknowledged her efforts to comfort him and shakily gave her a grateful smile.
"Thought you were afraid to come out here." A new voice spoke. Crap. Carlos. He made his way inside the studio, arms swinging childishly in the process.
The ghosts, although knowing he would just walk through them, chose to step back and let him through to talk with his sister and Ria.
"You talking to you ghost friend? How does he look? Is he hideous?" The young boy mockingly asked. Arms crossed cockily.
Chuckling softly Alex turned to his band mate Ria was already fond of. "He can see you." He joked.
"No he can't." Julie quickly shut down. The realization that Carlos could in fact not see them making Ria's mind scrabble once more.
"What?" The kid questioned.
"Ah, nothing bud, what did you come in here for?" Ria asked, diverting his attention away from his sister's conversation with the ghost.
"I came to get my weird sister for dinner. Are you joining us again?" Carlos asked the girl. Bouncing on the balls of his feet with excitement, hoping his favorite neighbor would be joining them for their seemingly boring dinner.
"Yes she is." Her friend speedily answered, hooking her arm around her's. Going along with it, the sixteen year old nodded with a toothy smile, leaning closer towards Julie.
Satisfied with the answer he received, the younger Molina swiftly turned around before walking back to the house.
Once the girls had made sure he was out of hearing range, Julie stated the obvious. "He couldn't see you."
The emotional band member shrugged, placing his hands into his ripped jean jacket pockets. "Yeah I mean, that's usually how ghosts work."
Hearing her friend sigh frustratingly, Ria was then tugged towards the entryway of the studio. "Look, I'm very sorry for what happened to you guys, but this isn't your studio anymore. You have to leave."
Cringing distastefully at the way her friend was handling the situation, Ria went to speak up but was cut of by the boy who had excitedly jumped on the couch earlier.
"Wait, we didn't your names."
"It's Julie."
"Maria. Nice to meet you." The girl piped up with a raise of her hand, choosing to be formal for this introduction.
"Maria" the flirtatious boy tested. Rolling the r sensually. "Pretty name for an even prettier girl."
Nervously chuckling at this, the girl's cheeks turned hot due to the compliment she had just received.
"Cool. I-I'm Luke." Luke introduced, ignoring his friend's- uncomfortable- flirting. He confidently took a step forward. Which resulted in the cross Ria was loosely holding getting snatched by Julie who then held it out warningly. "By- by the way." He stuttered as he took a step back from the two, now much for calm, girls.
"A-a-and this is-" he gestured with a wave of his arms to the boy who had made Ria a victim to his charms.
"Reggie, I'm Reggie, hey" he excitedly finished with a raised hand. Making Ria giggle quietly at his cuteness, lifting her hand up in a 'hey' motion. The girl happily ignored the weirded out expression her friend had given her.
"And-"
"Alex. How's it going?"
Glad to have received a positive reaction from Ria, the boys smiled. Even though the intense glare coming from Julie made them want to crawl back to wherever they had come from.
"Ba-da." Luke weakly finished, wincing at how dull he sounded.
Ria smiled at the group's awkwardness and lack of hostility, before being tugged away by her friend to get ready for what the girl assumed to be a dinner made from leftovers.
Making sure not to trip on the stone steps, the girl brought out her phone and texted her mom about her plans for the evening. An evident joyful smile stretched across her face from the (unexpected) conversation she had with the three ghost boys. Her encounter with Reggie specifically being the main reason as to why she couldn't wipe off the cheerful grin.
Out of all the boys in the world, why is it a dead boy that makes me swoon?